Completed in my first wheel to wheel race this past weekend....
10-29-2013, 12:36 PM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
Member Since: Jul 2010
Location: Honey Brook PA
Posts: 328
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Completed in my first wheel to wheel race this past weekend....
Granted it was a 24 Hours of Lemons race but it's still wheel to wheel!! 
I started out with autocross but it was such a long day with very little track time so I moved on to HPDE. I love HPDE as there is a good amount of track time for lower cost and I love working on my c5 to get it semi track ready. But IMO it's not nearly as exciting as wheel to wheel. I was on a team that had 3 cars that participated in the race at NH Motor Speedway. Very fun track and I really enjoyed the elevation changes.
At first I was a bit nervous about being in the car for so long but once you get out there you lose sense of time and the 2+ hours fly by. The first day I drove for just under 2 hours and then was hit by purple honda civic. Its nose literally put a paint stripe nose to tail on our E34 wagon and dented every panel on the passenger side. When I was hit on the passanger side, there was a car on my drivers side I was passing, so I was driven into that car and it hit my rear quarter panel. That caused me to spin 90 degrees on the track and go head first into the interior concrete wall. Luckily by the time I hit the wall I was maybe going 10-20mph. No real damage done, though broke a radiator mount. I waited for the rescue truck to help me back up onto the track and I pulled it into the pit. We checked everything out, guys gave me a lot of ****/jokes about being hit by the purple honda and my team mate took it back out. About an hour after he went back out the throttle cable snapped. I took off for an autozone and we replaced the cable but not in time to get back out for Saturday. We lost about 3 hours of driving.
Sunday I got two turns in the car and did not hit a single person. I was able to drop my lap times in each session. Saturday my best was 1.35. Sunday's first 2 1/2 hour session was 1.32 and my second session's best was 1.31. The fasted guy in our car put in a 1.30. The E34 wagon is a bit heavy and there is a bit more material that can be removed to reduce weight. But that things brakes were amazing. I LOVED diving into turns and braking much later than most everyone else, as well as trail brake through the turns.
It's an experience to go full out with 140 other cars on a 1.5 mile track. I am amazed though how much more comfortable it is to be in a full harness as in my c5 I have the stock seats/belts and i'm worn out after 20-30 minutes. Going ot need new seats before next year's HPDE season.
I'm hoping to be invited out to more Lemons races with this team. Damn that was fun.
I started out with autocross but it was such a long day with very little track time so I moved on to HPDE. I love HPDE as there is a good amount of track time for lower cost and I love working on my c5 to get it semi track ready. But IMO it's not nearly as exciting as wheel to wheel. I was on a team that had 3 cars that participated in the race at NH Motor Speedway. Very fun track and I really enjoyed the elevation changes.
At first I was a bit nervous about being in the car for so long but once you get out there you lose sense of time and the 2+ hours fly by. The first day I drove for just under 2 hours and then was hit by purple honda civic. Its nose literally put a paint stripe nose to tail on our E34 wagon and dented every panel on the passenger side. When I was hit on the passanger side, there was a car on my drivers side I was passing, so I was driven into that car and it hit my rear quarter panel. That caused me to spin 90 degrees on the track and go head first into the interior concrete wall. Luckily by the time I hit the wall I was maybe going 10-20mph. No real damage done, though broke a radiator mount. I waited for the rescue truck to help me back up onto the track and I pulled it into the pit. We checked everything out, guys gave me a lot of ****/jokes about being hit by the purple honda and my team mate took it back out. About an hour after he went back out the throttle cable snapped. I took off for an autozone and we replaced the cable but not in time to get back out for Saturday. We lost about 3 hours of driving.
Sunday I got two turns in the car and did not hit a single person. I was able to drop my lap times in each session. Saturday my best was 1.35. Sunday's first 2 1/2 hour session was 1.32 and my second session's best was 1.31. The fasted guy in our car put in a 1.30. The E34 wagon is a bit heavy and there is a bit more material that can be removed to reduce weight. But that things brakes were amazing. I LOVED diving into turns and braking much later than most everyone else, as well as trail brake through the turns.
It's an experience to go full out with 140 other cars on a 1.5 mile track. I am amazed though how much more comfortable it is to be in a full harness as in my c5 I have the stock seats/belts and i'm worn out after 20-30 minutes. Going ot need new seats before next year's HPDE season.
I'm hoping to be invited out to more Lemons races with this team. Damn that was fun.
I love LeMons races! My buddy and I are going to try that out as soon as possible.
